Ferguson
Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
WHEN THE next semester rolls around, Stephney Ferguson could well be caught in one of several mellow moods; at home asleep half-drunk from too much time in the sun, spattered in paint, excitedly sketching a scene atop a misty, foliage-covered mountain, or enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of a different culture... somewhere halfway around the world... maybe.
Anywhere but behind her desk at the sprawling main library, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
Her eyes light up at the thought, a smile plays around her lips, "I'm looking forward to it, I've been here long enough, it's time to give a younger person a chance someone with the energy," she said.
"There are other experiences to be had and I'm going to seek those experiences."
Her list of wanna-dos is getting longer.
"I would love to learn to play a musical instrument, do something artistic, do gourmet cooking, travel some more, maybe."
There's that look in her eye again. Come September she retires as UWI campus librarian where she has overall responsibility for all three locations: St. Augustine in Trinidad, Cave Hill in Barbados, and the largest, Mona in Jamaica.
Her job now includes co-ordinating the activities of main libraries, science libraries, medical libraries, law libraries as well as library services to all the non-campus territories which the UWI serves.
She has responsibility for developing policy to guide the focus of all the campuses with integration being key, managing the over 100 full-time library staff, keeping a keen eye on budget, and fielding hundreds of requests daily from faculty, students and other researchers.
"It can be quite stressful," she says in a pensive moment.
But she is satisfied. "Up to now I have no regrets, I have lived life to its fullest, library has been good to me." But Stephney is no ordinary librarian, hers is an almost clinical devotion.
At 17 years old she had rejected the offerings available and set off from familiar Hopewell, Hanover, to carve her own path. The eldest of four children, she had always known what it meant to be pioneering.
"I never went to basic school, my mother, although she was not a trained teacher, just saw a need in the community and filled it, she was always a leader, always involved in something. My father was reserved but very independent and provided well for his family."
Library, though, was nothing new.
Career
"I've always worked in libraries except for a brief period, maybe four or five months after I left high school, (Montego Bay High, St. James). I didn't particularly want to do something to pursue a particular career, I knew what I DIDN'T want to do, because at the time opportunities were severely limited, we're talking 1958/9. At the time more and more persons were sort of leaving school and going to university, I knew that I couldn't do it because my parents had three other children to put through school, I was the eldest.
"Opportunities were limited, particularly for women, you either became a teacher, postmistress, or nurse. I didn't want to do any of those. So I took a job, accounting, which I didn't particularly like, but I used to volunteer at the St. James Parish Library. I used to help because the then librarian was a person I liked and admired, then a vacancy popped up, I applied and got the job, and it took off from there. At the time library education was, if you could afford to you went aboard, otherwise you did correspondence with the library association in Great Britain. I took the course, did exams and got through.
"Jamaica Library Service (JLS) had a scheme where they sent people to a library school which was in Trinidad for a short while there, I went two courses and finished up, and by 1961 I had qualified as a librarian."
Senior librarian
Her account seems fairly simple but she went on to become senior librarian at the JLS, where her assignments included organising the libraries of the Jamaica High Commission in London (1967/68) and the Houses of Parliament Library in Kingston 1968/1969. She was college librarian at the College of Arts Science and Technology, (CAST) then director of the National Library of Jamaica.
A promotion from the post of head of the department of library and information studies landed her at the UWI's main library; campus and university librarian.Research, though tedious, is something she enjoys.
"It's like reading detective novels, when someone comes with a query, the ensuing investigation, interview to find out exactly what the person needs, and the subsequent satisfaction of being able to meet that need.
"And it's very interesting, you must have a wide knowledge of developments, you can't wear blinkers as a librarian."
Ms. Ferguson lives with her sister and 18-year-old adopted daughter Kreisha.
